Hi all,
I’d really appreciate a sense check on our situation - I’m struggling to settle on whether our plan is reasonable or overly optimistic.
I’m 41 (wife is 42), with two kids aged 7 and 3. We’re currently living in the US but planning to move back to the UK in about a year to be closer to family - that’s the main driver.
Current position:
- £1.2M invested (around 40% in pensions)
- Mortgage-free house worth £350k
- Expect £1.5M invested by the time we leave the US (in just over a year)
Plan:
- Move to the north of England
- Potentially upgrade house by £100–200k
- Set aside £100k to help with kids’ university
- Target spending: £45k/year
Spending assumptions:
I’ve sanity-checked this a few ways:
- Inflated previous UK expenses and added more for growing kids → £45k
- Scaled current US spending (0.75x for San Jose → northern UK) → £43k
- Rebuilt a UK-style budget line-by-line, including house maintenance and higher child costs → £48k
Most approaches land in a similar range, though this seems lower than many figures quoted here.
I’ve modeled this in ProjectionLab and get 90% probability of success. This includes:
- Moving costs and a more expensive first year
- House upgrade after 2 years
- University support
- £50k/year spending until kids are 21, then £40k
Other context:
- I’m not opposed to working again, but I don’t want to feel locked into a traditional 9-5 purely for financial security
- Ideally I’d step away and experiment with my own projects/business
- My wife isn’t working currently but isn't against returning in the future
What’s giving me pause:
I see a lot of posts here with similar (or higher) numbers where people plan to work several more years, which makes me wonder if I’m underestimating something.
Questions:
- Does this plan seem reasonable, or am I missing something major?
- Does £45k/year for a family of four in the north sound realistic?
- Is 90% success “enough,” or would you want more margin?
- Would you step away from full-time work in this position?
Thanks - really appreciate any perspectives, especially from those with kids or who’ve already made a similar move.